The First Grand Deucallion
by PolkaDotSideplates
Summary: Prequel to Metal Masters where Sophie and Wales meet and battle.


"The final battle for the France block of the battle to commemorate the opening of the Channel Tunnel has ended with a stunning defeat of Charles and Sol Gallus by Sophie and her bey Grand Cetus! The final battle against England's representative, who has yet to be decided, in a stadium unknown even to myself, will be tonight at sundown! But first the winner of the England block must be decided! Let's head to the stadium in London where the contestants are walking to the stadium as we speak!"

Sophie sat down in her green room at the Calais stadium to hear these words on the TV. She was going to have to watch this battle closely to analyze her opponent. The voice changed to a another DJ in London ready to translate the words of his English counterpart for French TV. Not that Sophie needed the translation.

"The stadium is roaring with excitement in England's largest city this afternoon! The English final is about to begin! To my right is Stephen, with his bey Cloud Eagle W145D. During the first match, he blew away his opponents with his special move after just 10 seconds! Next he-"

Sophie tuned out, watching the orange haired blader opposite Stephen. He seemed to be looking for something. Just then the camera switched, and the blader's eyes looked at it, seeming to be staring straight into her eyes.

She would later learn that that was his intent.

"-and to my left is the blader who powers his way through every battle: the Welsh Wales Landeg! His name produces a flurry of bad puns in English and you'd better thank me for not translating them. His bey, a defensive type that stands up to attacks like an armored brick wall, is Grand Cetus WD145RS! The crowd is roaring with excitement as they've just watched the French final battle on the huge screen in the stadium, and everyone's thinking the same thing: Will Wales win and move on to battle Sophie, who has a nearly identical bey? It's time to find out!"

The camera cut to the two bladers with a blue line in between. The editing always made watching battles on the TV way more fun than watching them in person. The recaps would likely have even better editing.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Let it rip!"

Cetus was quick to maintain a defensive stance in the center of the stadium. The brown eagle bey circled around the stadium.

"I know you have real strength, Wales, so don't think you can win by me holding back. I'll finish this faster than it started!" Stephen commanded his bey into the air.

"Oh yeah, then I won't hold back either! Don't even mention the thought of me losing, because it won't happen! Cetus, Grand Fleet!"

Before Stephen could call his special move, a blue silhouette of a whale had leapt into the air and smacked into Eagle, who was thrown into the stadium wall with a grand crash.

"No way! Sure enough, the battle was over just as fast as it started, with the victory going to Wales within the beys's first strike. The final contestants have been cast, and as many people had hoped, it will be Sophie and Wales, two powerful bladers with nearly identical beys! Who knows, maybe it's a sign of a possible roman-"

Sophie's face flushed red as she turned off the TV. He was handsome for sure, and his strength was as real as hers. It was silly to start imagining herself with Wales' last name before she even met him.

"But all the same," she thought back to Wales' blue bey, "there are many tales about bladers with the same bey sharing strong bonds." She pulled out her bey.

"But the most important thing now is a sure victory. I owe you that much, Cetus. If we make a new friend along the way, so be it. But I will win with my blader's spirit."

She stepped out the doors to find the limo that would take her to the final stadium.

"I hope you enjoyed that showcase on the Rubber Sharp performance tip. Now begins a live demonstration, between the much anticipated final battle between Wales and Sophie, two bladers with nearly identical beys with said performance tip! Exiting the helicopter now is our very own Sophie Bellerose, with Grand Cetus T125RS! Let's hope that stamina-type spin track will be enough to claim victory!"

Sophie waved to the camera crew in the helicopter, before it began to float away to prepare for take off.

"Time to look at the final stadium! Sophie is standing on an arena that's actually gloating over the Channel Funnel! This glass stadium was built especially for this battle, and will be towed to it's new home in Dover when the battle is over. Assuming, of course, that it even survives this epic battle!"

Sophie thought that she could hear the sound of fans cheering from the coasts, but it turned out to be the faint sound of a hydroplane. She couldn't hear the commentary from the TV in the helicopter anymore, and the helicopter seemed to push on the water like a rubber ball as it took off to return to Calais. But she wasn't alone for long, as the hydroplane landed worryingly close to the stadium and halted neatly on the platform opposite Sophie. The sliding door opened to reveal the tall ginger blader Wales. She could hear the muffled sound of commentary from a radio inside the plane, in English this time.

"Now that Wales has arrived the nets protecting the bladers from falling into the ocean will rise, and the battle will commence."

Sure enough, several metal poles folded from the bottom and soon the stadium was surrounded by a black net. The hydroplane took off again, and Sophie and Wales were now all alone.

"There's no DJ or a speaker system? Is there a countdown we have to match?"

"I think it's our call. Ready?"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Let it rip!"

The Cetus beys circled around each other, waiting for the other to make it's move.

"Go Cetus!" they called in unison.

The Cetus beys veered left to the stadium center, hitting each other head on, and producing a strong shock wave. The both lost their balance as the floating stadium bobbed up and down, falling backwards into the nets. As Sophie stood back up, she could see that her bey had been pushed back, and Wales had taken the center in a defensive position.

"No way! Cetus has never been pushed back like that before!"

"It's too late for you to do anything about it, but Blue Cetus' spin track is two millimeters taller than yours. Since our beys are identical in every other way, the o lh advantage either of us has is that a defense type like mine can pin your bey from above!"

wales' bey zipped towards Sophie's, dealing blow after blow to it's opponent.

"Fight back, Cetus!"

"it won't work!"

Blue Grand Cetus repelled it's opponent with brute force once again. White Grand Cetus spin speed had already dropped dramatically.

"So you really are strong, Wales Landeg. This is the first time I've been pushed so far."

"But I'm guessing you're not about to give up just yet?"

"Nope! My Cetus still has a lot to show you, my friend! Whirl now, Grand Cetus!"

White Cetus began to shine brightly and water began to pour from the skies into her bey. Wales smirked.

"Cetus: Grand Maelstrom! Drown your opponent in the swirling current!"

"If it's just a spiral of air created by the T125 spin track, I can break through easily! Special Move: Grand Barrier!"

Blue Grand Cetus shone bright blue right as White Grand Cetus finished charging up it's attack and released a massive wave of thick air. Well, that's what Wales thought. Blue Grand Cetus held it's ground for a short moment before getting blown away.

"No way! Cetus should have been able to fend that off! Get out of there, Cetus!"

"Hahahaha!" Sophie laughed. "This special move is under different circumstances than in the previous matches in Calais. Now it's foggy and humid out. Which means my whirling current of wind is now a true whirlpool of destruction. A whale feels at home in water, not air!"

"Speak for yourself!"

Wales finally managed to free his bey from the grasp of the whirlpool. His bey was visibly on the verge of losing it's balance from it's slowed speed.

"That did so much damage to Cetus! I can't believe it! But manipulating all that water must have taken a lot of power as well."

Sophie's whirlpool slowed, as if in direct response, and her weakened bey leapt out the top. The two beys began to circle the stadium on the ring of the arena that wasn't filled with water.

"I'm going to win this match! My blader's spirit won't let me down. I'll finish this with one last attack! You ready Sophie?"

"One step ahead of you, Wales. Special Move: Grand Victoire!"

"Special Move: Grand Fleet!"

The two beys used the walls of the stadium to leap into the air. The silhouettes of blue and white whales smashed into each other.

And it all went downhill from there.

The beys threw each other into the glass. Between the intense shockwave, the heavy water already filling the arena, and the small holes the Cetus beys were stuck in, the arena began to tilt. Wales fell into the water first, but Sophie was thrown into the air before the entire arena fell upside down on top of them.

Wales came up, gasping for air. He tried to find something to hold onto, but there were no suitable edges to grab. They'd have to find a way out soon, as they couldn't keep swimming forever. Sophie returned to the atmosphere again, gasping for air like Wales did.

"The nets are too deep to swim underneath to get out, so we're going to have to break through with our beys."

Sophie focused her eyes on him, registering what he'd said. She nodded and swam to her bey. She tried to pull it out with her fingernails, but it was stuck, and she said so. Wales had more luck, with his wider spin track making the bey less lodged in. He set his bey into his water-logged launcher.

"Get ready to catch your bey, Sophie. Let it rip!"

Blue Grand Cetus shattered the glass around White Grand Cetus, and Sophie was able to pull away the shards to free her bey. Sophie and Wales put their beys back into their launchers.

"If we make a hole through the top we'll never reach it, but if we make the hole through the side the pocket of air will fill with water and the whole thing will sink. You see that scratch?"

Sophie gazed up at a particularly large scratch above them from the previous battle. She aimed her launcher.

"Let it rip!" they shouted together.

"Cetus Grand Victoire!"

"Cetus Grand Fleet!"

"Joint Special Move: Cetus Grand Deucallion!"

A brilliant cerulean light filled the flipped dome, and a large hole appeared in the stadium. Shards of glass tumbled into the ocean.

"We did it!"

"Yes! I'll go first and then I'll help you up. Is that OK?"

"No complaints."

Wales jumped and grabbed onto the glass. Sophie cringed as he roared in pain. He looked ready to fall, but he managed to climb up to safety. He tumbled to the edge where it was flat and held his hand in agony. Sophie could see blood dipping onto the glass, and guiltily realized he'd cut his hands on the sharp edges of the glass.

"Wales? Are you alright?"

Wales perked up at the sound of her voice and remembered what he had promised. He weakly picked up his and Sophie's beys, ignoring the pain as best he could, and launched his bey towards the hole. With expert precision he used Grand Cetus to round the edges so the razor sharp blades of glass would disappear. No sooner had he finished that he collapsed, tumbling down to the edge of the stadium again.

"No! Wales!" Sophie cried. She leapt for the hole, grabbing on to the now rounded edges and climbing up to help her new friend.

Upon closer inspection, Wales had cut his hands way worse than she thought. They looked like he'd stuck them into a haystack made of knives. She put Wales' hands into the ocean water, and his motionless body jerked back to life from the pain of the salt touching his wounds. Next, Sophie went back to the hole, where she picked up a shard of glass. She clambered back down to Wales, and used the shard to cut off two large sections of her jacket. She carefully bandaged up Wales wounds.

"You didn't have to ruin your jacket. You should have used my clothes." It should be noted that by this point it was very cold, seeing as night had fallen before the batle even began.

"Nonsense. I really hate to get wet, and you helped me get dry. It's the least I could do."

Wales sat upright against the slope of the dome, and Sophie copied him. The two stared at the clouds through which the moon's light was visible.

"I was going to quit Beyblade today."

Sophie turned to Wales, a dead expression on her face from the out of the blue revelation.

"All my life there's never been anyone who could come close to defeating me. I love Beyblade, but it's not fun if the battles aren't intense, right? I was going to win this tournament, and retire from the stadium."

Wales turned to Sophie, with the moon twinkling in his eyes.

"But now I won't do that. Because I've found my equal in battle."

Sophie's eyes watered, and was only able to splutter out his name. Instead of speaking, she rested her hand on his chest, and nestled her head onto his shoulder, and they renained there until the helicopter came to rescue them.


End file.
